SmokingHot (3 page)

Sean held a finger to his lips and shook his head. “Shh.”

“Do not shush me!” I yelled and he smacked me.

Not hard enough to hurt me, just hard enough to shock the
shit out of me and when I swallowed my next yell he clamped his hand over my
mouth and said, “I really kind of like you, Van. I’d like to get to know you
when we’re not in a supernatural lockdown and I’d really like us both to be
alive to do that. So you need to shut the fuck up, okay?”

I nodded.

“I’m going to take my hand away and you’re going to be
quiet. Okay?”

I nodded again.

He took his hand away. “Asshole,” I breathed. But then I
kissed him. Really, really hard. I didn’t just kiss him, I tried to climb him.
If I could have climbed Sean Tierney like a tree, I would have. “I’m scared,” I
said into his mouth.

“I know.”

I pushed my hands under his shirt to feel his warm body. I
found the rubbers in his jeans and yanked one free. “I’m really scared. And
that revs me up and I—” I shook my head, kissed him again.

“What?” He grabbed my hair in his hands and tugged so that
my mouth couldn’t reach his. His big green eyes stared me down and I felt as
naked as hell under his gaze.

“Can we do it one more time? I think we’re going to die and
I don’t want to die a virgin.”

“You are so not a virgin,” he laughed. I kissed his nose
where tiny caramel-colored freckles dotted his skin.

“I don’t want to die a Sean virgin,” I said, rubbing his
cock through his jeans. My heart beat so hard I felt lightheaded and I
wondered, was that black smoked licking at our doorknob while we wasted good
living time chitchatting. We could only have moments. I pushed my hand into his
jeans and stroked him.

“You’re not even a Sean virgin,” he said, but he palmed my
ass with his hand and tugged me to him.

“Bear with me. Just…go with it. I don’t want to die this
close to a sexy guy I think I could really like without giving it one more go.
One more slap and tickle, one more roll in the hay, one more
chitty-chitty-bang-me,” I said and licked his chin.

“Christ,” he said and took the rubber from me. We were
clumsy and rushed and frantic, adrenaline will do that to you. Soon enough
though, he had me wedged in the corner and his mouth was hot on mine.

“Just once more before I die,” I said and opened my mouth
when he licked his tongue over my lips. He kissed me hard and said, “You are
not going to die.”

“Just in case, then?” I said.

“Just in case.” Sean slipped into me slowly, pinning my arms
on either side of my head, the backs of my hands rubbing the ugly,
rough-textured wallpaper.

I hooked my leg to his lean hip and let him in, thrusting my
hips up to take him deep. “One of these days you’ll have to actually lay me
down and take me on a bed,” I said. “Or a sofa…hell, on the grass.”

He smiled, his teeth bright and shiny in the gloomy, tiny
room. “Promise.” He thrust hard and my feet lifted almost off the floor. My
tippytoes kept purchase on the tiles. Outside something banged and my heart
jumped. “Hurry, make me come! He’s going to kill us.”

He shook his head and gritted his teeth. “No pressure
there.”

I leaned in and bit his nipple and Sean stilled, growled and
then surged forward, trapping me in place with his harsh movements. His thumb
found my clit and he pressed and rubbed until I said, “Whoa,” and came in a
rush of wetness and adrenaline and a lust to live.

He came saying harshly, “Biting is cheating.”

“You seemed the kind who might um—”

“What?” We were putting ourselves together as something fell
overhead. Someone or something on the floor above us had taken a fall.

“Like it. Get off on that little jolt of pain.”

I couldn’t quite catch my breath but in a good way. Better
from orgasm than terror.

I zipped my jeans and fluffed my hair, as if that mattered,
when someone knocked. “Um, hello in there?”

Roxy.

“Jesus,” I said. “This is getting to be a habit with her.”

“At least she’s alive,” Sean said and unlocked the door.

“God, make me feel bad!” I said and he grinned. We opened
the door and let her in.

She pressed her back to the door. “Boy, you two seem to find
fear an aphrodisiac.”

I rolled my eyes. “Now, tell us. Why is this kid—the boy
spirit—in the box? How the hell did that happen?”

“Interesting story,” she said and pulled a bottle of vodka
from the folds of her skirt. “Nip?”

“Hell, you’ll be lucky to get it back,” I said and took a
swig.

“There was a great commotion in the house for years after
his death. His mother was so fearful she tried to sell the house but he’d act
up worse when folks would come to look. Finally she called in supernatural help
and had him bound in the box. She tried every religion she could think of
before finally finding a voodoo doctor who managed to lock him up tight.”

“Gee,” I breathed. “Not too creepy.”

“We have a brief respite,” Roxy said. “He’s taking a break.”

“Great, let’s haul ass,” I said and grabbed Sean’s hand.

“The house is still sealed,” she said, shaking her head so
her pseudo dreadlocks swayed around her plump face.

I frowned. “How?”

She shrugged. “This is the supernatural. How anything?”

We moved through the house, the three of us. “How do you
know he’s taking a break?” Sean asked Roxy. He tested the front door knob and
frowned. He took a lamp from a bookshelf and banged the heavy base against the
front door glass. It bounced like the glass was rubber. “What the—”

“It takes a lot to manifest that way so he told me.” Roxy
took the lamp. “That won’t help. You’ll just hurt yourself.”

“Why is he telling you this?” I asked, taking another swig
of her vodka and then handing it back. Sean intercepted it and took a few gulps
of his own.

“I can hear him.” She shrugged. “Wouldn’t you talk to the
only person who could hear you?”

“Hmm. I guess.”

“So he’s on um…down time?” Sean asked.

“Yes,” Roxy said. She pulled out a pack of cigarettes,
considered them, put them away. “I’m trying to quit,” she said.

I nodded.

“But we’re still trapped?” Sean asked, taking my hand. I
squeezed it. And then slightly startled by the ease with which we did it, we
both stared at our intertwined hands as if we’d never seen them before. Then we
dropped each other’s like it was hot.

Roxy laughed softly but then sobered. “Yes.”

“Okay, listen up, people!” Sean yelled in a really sexy cop
voice. “I don’t know how many folks are here, but if you are battened down,
good. Now’s your time, though, to grab something you might need, find someone
you’re looking for or hit the can. We don’t know how long we have but we’re
okay now. Then return to your spot and get comfy. When it’s all over, I have a
feeling you’ll know. Until then, watch your back, because the house is still
sealed.”

“He has ten,” Roxy said to me. “He only needs six more.”

“Then what?” I asked.

She shrugged. “He hasn’t said. Think of a really petulant
ten-year-old who’s all mean and fed on evil and has had years and years to hold
a grudge. Then make him crazy.”

“Awesome,” I said, but my throat felt about three sizes too
small.

Sean pulled me in for a one-armed hug and kissed the top of
my head. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“For what?”

“For bringing you here. And for waiting so long.”

Roxy had moved ahead of us and marched her lace-up, leather
boots down a long, narrow hall. We followed her because she seemed to be the
logical tour guide for Mr. Crazy’s Wild Ride.

“Waiting so long?” I asked and surprised even myself by
standing on tiptoe to kiss a man that earlier this evening I had been hell-bent
on not liking at all.

“To take you out.” He put his arm around me and around us I
heard the hushed whispers of people in hiding who refused to come out despite
his announcement. I couldn’t say I blamed them much.

“Why was that?”

“I heard you were—”

“What?”

Roxy stopped before a room that was painted a horrid robin’s
egg blue. She waved to us and I followed her.

“Difficult,” he said softly. “And I had just come from a
bad, bad situation So, I put it off but Clarice kept—”

“Difficult!” I said backpedaling.

“A bit.”

“Fuck!”

“Hey, now, you are a little…standoffish to say the least,”
he said.

“I am so not. I am so…still!”

He clamped a hand over my mouth and pulled me into the room.
Off the main room was a smaller room, probably a nursery once upon a time. Roxy
said, “Hey, I’ll just be in here, lovebirds,” she said and quickly ran for
cover.

“I was trying to say that I’m glad we’re out, even if we are
trapped in the hall of terrors.”

“Great job!” I huffed, dropping to a big saggy double bed. I
crossed my arms over my chest. To think, I had gone down on this man. I’d had
sex with him. And yes! I wanted to have sex with him again. How crazy was that?

“Come on, now.” He laughed and sat next to me.

“Shut up,” I said. Tears pricked my eyes and I promised
myself that if I cried in front of Sean because he called me difficult I would
poke my own eyes out with shrimp forks. I swallowed hard and then harder to fend
off the tears I refused to shed.

“Forgive me,” he said and kissed my head.

“No.”

“Forgive me,” he said again, pulling me to him with that
maddening one-armed hug and rubbed his thumb on my nipple. My body responded
with an eager want.

Stupid body.

“I’ll think about it,” I said and yawned.

“Lie down with me,” he said.

“No! You just called me difficult.”

“To rest. No monkey business. We need to rest so we can
focus so we can deal with the monster box or the smoke guy or whatever you want
to call it.

“Arthur,” said Roxy through the door.

“Great,” I said. “Arthur. The big bad Arthur.”

* * * * *

I hadn’t expected to sleep but Sean pulled me to his warm,
broad chest and the sound of his strong, steady heartbeat lulled me under. I
felt my eyes grow heavy and could not believe that my body was considering
falling asleep. And then at some point I fell asleep.

When I opened my eyes he was staring at me. Big green eyes
shot with blue striations like the ocean staring me down. I swallowed hard,
hoping against hope I looked at least decent and not the way I normally looked
when I woke up. Which is sort of the way a person looks when she licks a light
socket. “Hi,” I said.

“Hi.”

“Something wrong?” I listened and not a sound. Nothing at
all. No screaming which was good. No emergency sirens or quick response
supernatural police force who could banish evil spirits with the wave of a…um,
wand?

“Nope. Just looking.” His fingers tickled through my long
bangs and brushed them off my face. They gently settled on the skin of my forehead
and rubbed me there. It was like melting or taking a Valium or a big deep
breath. Him touching me that way made me so calm even in the middle of all the
chaos and the uncertainty.

“At me?”

Sean made a show of looking around for another person. “Pretty
much,” he said, smiling.

“Any word?”

“Nah. No sounds, no smoke. Nothing bad has happened and
nothing good. I figured that our early warning system will know and give us a
heads up when we can either make a break for it or the smoke comes back.”

“Arthur,” I said.

“Arthur,” he echoed.

I turned to face him, praying that I hadn’t been asleep long
enough to have dragon breath. “I don’t like it,” I said.

Sean laughed softly, traced a finger down the slope of my
nose. He touched my lips with his fingertip and then leaned in to kiss me for a
lingering moment. “I don’t think anyone does.”

“But see this is my luck,” I protested. I kissed him back,
letting the hot, wet tip of his tongue past my lips. He pulled me in so that we
were flush—hip to hip, chest to chest, hard-on to…well, no-hard-on, but you get
the picture.

“What is your luck, Van?”

“I didn’t want to go out on a date with you,” I said.

“So you said.”

“And I did not want to like you at all,” I went on.

“So I figured.”

“I assumed you’d be a big loser geek nerd or a douche bag.
No offense.”

“Wow,” Sean said, “how in the world could I take offense to
that?” But miraculously, he put his big, strong hands to the small of my back
and held me close while I talked.

“I said assumed. And we know what they say about assuming.”

He nodded, kissed me again. Deeper this time, so that I had
to break the perfect sexy kiss to continue. But I did, because I have never
learned the great art of shut-the-fuck-up.

“I do. I do know what they say about assuming,” Sean said
and cupped my bottom in his hands. He wriggled against me so I felt the hard
ridge of his cock in those beat-to-hell jeans and I rolled my eyes.

“Distracting!” I said.

“Doing my best,” he answered.

“Listen, if we die I have to say this,” I said. But I pushed
my hand between us and cupped his cock in my hand, feeling it jump in his pants
at my firm touch. I smiled and he kissed me once more.

“Can you get to the but part then? God, tell me there is a
but part. It’s not I thought you were a douche bag and turns out you were, the
end, is it? It is, I assumed you were going to be a douche bag, but—”

“But you weren’t,” I said. I squeezed him and he groaned.
“You were sexy and nice. You had a good story about your dad and a good heart.
You’ve kept me safe and didn’t run off even though we’ve already done stuff.
Boy, almost getting killed sure speeds up the time frame as far as sleep with
him/don’t sleep with him for us girls.” I squeezed once more and when he
sighed, I pushed my hands down past the waistband, forced my fingers into his
jeans and cupped his warm, soft skin so there was no barrier between us.

“And I am so, so glad, because I would have totally waited,”
he said, rubbing circles on my ass and then giving up, he shoved his hands down
into the back of my pants to touch my skin. “But I am glad that if anything
does happen we had a chance to be together. Because I think you’re really cool.
Even if you did assume I was a douche.”

“I’m sorry about that,” I said and rolled on top of him,
pushing my body flush to his. I moved just enough to feel his cock react to my
undulation and when he groaned again, I smiled. I liked the way he looked horny
and restless and sexy as all get out.

“You are sorry? Something tells me I should get that in
writing.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t happen very often,” I said, leaning down
to kiss him, watching the long fall of my dark hair rain down to shield us from
view. I pulled at his button-down, managed a few buttons and yanked it over his
head with his help. Under me, his cock was hard and he started tugging at my
jeans and my sweater like my clothes were on fire and he had to get me out.

I laughed and it turned into a snort. “What?” His lean face
was intent, green eyes flashing with serious intent. But he smiled and that
softened the predatory look.

“I hope nothing happens if I’m going to be buck naked this
time. Is it buck or butt?”

“Don’t care,” he said and cupped my breasts in his hands,
pinching my nipples between his fingers so I froze up with a sigh and then I
was fishing in his jacket, tossed on the bed, for the condoms and rolling one
on, watching the slight curve of his cock and remembering the taste of him on
my lips.

“Sorry,” I said. “I just don’t want to die naked.” I lowered
onto Sean inch by inch, watching my body eat him up, feeling him stretch my
pussy in the most delicious way. It was nice in the midst of this paranormal
standoff to be able to steal a few minutes of bliss. On a bed, in a room, in
private. Away from Arthur the smoke ghost and Roxy Morton the unkempt psychic.

Sean forced his fingers between mine, holding my hands as I
started to move. Raising and lowering myself on his hard cock, moving slowly
and letting my body adjust to the girth of him. He was big but he was patient
and when I was past the point of needing time, he started to thrust, his
fingers gripping hard to mine, his body surging up under me. “You are
beautiful. Have I even said that? You are sort of caustic and have a sense of
humor you could sharpen a knife on but you are beautiful and you are wicked
cool,” he said.

And I laughed.

“Wicked cool or just wicked?”

“Yes?” he said, moving his hands to my hips and thrusting up
hard as I rocked on him. Moving like I was on the waves of an ocean only I
could see. I let my eyes drift shut and my head fall back. I lost myself in the
feel of his cock slipping deep into me, brushing all the sensitive nerves that
made my body tighten and pulse. All the places that made me bite my lips and
clutch at him like I was going to drown in a sea of pleasure.

“Thanks,” I said.

“You’re so tight right now. You’re right there,” Sean
informed me and I smiled, eyes still closed.

His hands roamed my sides, making me shiver and jump. He
stroked my nipples with his thumbs and then tugged me low so I hovered over him
to give him access. His tongue found one hard nub and then the other and he
sucked each one so hard I felt the echoing pulse of pleasure in my cunt.

“You’re going to come soon. Come for me, Vanessa.”

“Don’t call me—”

“Just this once,” he said and sucked again. Licking a wet
trail between my breasts.

“Okay,” I sighed.

He chuckled in my ear and the sound warmed me even as he
clamped his fingers onto my hips and drove up under me, burying himself deep in
my pussy, moving a bit faster, a bit deeper. His movements more urgent and
aggressive.

“Oh, god. Right there. Right, right, right there,” I
breathed and Sean moved right there and I came, pushing my lips to his, biting
so that I heard him hiss but he kissed me right back and I came and came and
came. One sweet spasm following the next until he pushed his fingers in my hair
and said, “Good?”

I could only nod.

“Good,” he said and grinned. He pushed me back and turned me
over before I could even react or get my bearings. I was facing the door to the
tiny adjoining room and Sean put a big hand to the small of my back, pressing
down. My legs splayed wide, my forehead on my forearms as he ran the slick head
of his cock to the wetness between my thighs. “You have a spectacular ass,
Vanessa. See, these are the things you forget to tell a wicked-cool,
smoking-hot woman when you’re under duress. I want to tell you that now. You.
Have. A spectacular. Ass!” he said and smacked me hard enough to make me jitter
but not hard enough to make much noise at all. I sighed softly and caught sight
of motion in my peripheral vision.